Bill's Early Dollar Date Set
1798 SMALL EAGLE

Owner Comments:

According to Q. David Bowers, the U.S. mint used back dated 1795, 1796 and 1797 dies to strike silver dollars during the early part of 1798. In the early years of the U.S. mint the mere fact that there had been a change in the calendar year was no reason to discard a perfectly useable die.

Perhaps in May the facility brought the first 1798 dated obverse dies into service, but continued to use old Small Eagle reverse dies that had been used in previous years. The dollar would be the last silver coin the mint would issue with the Small Eagle reverse. Overall Bowers estimated that 35,000, 1798 silver dollars with Small Eagle reverse were struck. That small mintage combined with the absence of any known hoards has made these coins scarce.

The early dollar pictured above is the more common 13 obverse star variety. A slightly scarcer 15 obverse star variety is also known. This coin has a tad too much wear to qualify for the EF-40 grade. It is a very VF-35 graded piece with original surfaces.